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Help setting up Airport extreme

B

bluesy

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 16, 2008
39
4
I got an airport extreme set up to dual network so i have a a/b/g network and a 5ghz N network running at the same time.

But the 5ghz has a really poor range and is disturbed but other signals around my apartment, so i wanted to set up and network where i have a a/b/g (maybe n allso) and then a just N network on 2.4 ghz but i have no idea what setting i should choose for this.

Hope anyone know how to do it, or if its even possible
 
BreakGuy said:
I think, if I understand your situation correctly, you'd be looking at using the 802.11a/n - 802.11n only (2.4GHz) option.
Click to expand...

Does that supprt g network on the first one? im confused because they write a/n so i thought that was all it supported, and we happen to have a few old g network items in the house
 
bluesy said:
Does that supprt g network on the first one? im confused because they write a/n so i thought that was all it supported, and we happen to have a few old g network items in the house
Click to expand...
It should do. As far as I know 802.11n is backwards compatible with 802.11g devices. Someone will have to correct me if I'm wrong.
 
You want the 802.11 a/n - 802.11 b/g setting.

The formula is: (radio one) - (radio two) so in this case you will have a 802.11 a/n transmitter and a 802.11 b/g transmitter which gets your 2.4 n stuff on one radio and the legacy stuff on the other radio. The bands designated are the only ones that will be able to be able to connect to that radio, in this case a and n on radio one and b and g on radio 2. Sine the first one is n only it will not allow legacy speeds (b and g) to connect.

As stated, although n is backwards compatible, it a=only works that way for the client and not the host, that means that a client will be able throttle itself to connect to b and g legacy host equipment, albeit at a slower speed, however it does not work the opposite way. B and G clients can not connect to N only host, that would be a promotion (great if it worked that way) but alas it does not.
 
It depends which version of the airport utility you are using to configure it as to what's available.

If you option click the radio modes, it will give you all the possible combinations supported.

I have mine set to b/g/n 2.4GHz and n only 5GHz, with different SSID's for the 2.4 and 5 bands.
 
psxguru said:
It depends which version of the airport utility you are using to configure it as to what's available.

If you option click the radio modes, it will give you all the possible combinations supported.

I have mine set to b/g/n 2.4GHz and n only 5GHz, with different SSID's for the 2.4 and 5 bands.
Click to expand...

That is also what i use, but the OP wants to get away from such configuration due to the 5GHz not working for his situation and would like a 2.4GHZ N only connection (which is not an option with also allowing the legacy b/g connections as well).
 
Thank you for all the awesome info :) im going to play with this as soon as i get time.

I just wish 5ghz was more stable where i live, but the walls and outside interference is making it unstable.
 
psxguru said:
I have mine set to b/g/n 2.4GHz and n only 5GHz, with different SSID's for the 2.4 and 5 bands.
Click to expand...

Curious - how exactly did you configure N-only 5Ghz network? As far as I can tell, the latest Airport Config Utility supports the following 3 radio modes on the latest AEBS:

5Ghz a/n + 2.4Ghz b/g/n (automatic mode)
5Ghz a/n + 2.4Ghz b/g
5Ghz a + 2.4Ghz b/g

So there doesn't appear to be a way to configure any of the radios for N-only mode..
 
If you hold down Option and click the dropdown it'll show a larger selection. I'm not sure about the latest AirPort Utility though as I refuse to upgrade to it until it's at least as full featured as the older one.
 
skorpien said:
If you hold down Option and click the dropdown it'll show a larger selection. I'm not sure about the latest AirPort Utility though as I refuse to upgrade to it until it's at least as full featured as the older one.
Click to expand...

Ah yeah, that does it. Works the same way in "new" AirPort Utility as well as 5.6.
 
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